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| The Abbots of Dunkeld are descendents of Saint Columba, one of them was called Duncan and he was killed in Battle around the year of 964A.D. He was succeeded by another named Abbot Crinan, who married into the royal house. His youngest son went on to produce a son named Madadh, who became the Earl of Atholl and was the progenitor of the Robertson clan. The Gaelic name for the clan is Donnchadh, pronounced Donnachy, and translated Duncan . While the name Robertson takes its origins from Robert Reoch, who played a dramatic part in Scottish history. |
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This Robert was noted for his predatory incursions into the Lowlands, and is historically know as the chief who arrested and delivered up to the vengeance of the government Robert Graham and the Master of Athole, two of the murderers of James I, for which he was rewarded with a crown charter, dates in the year 1451, erecting his whole lands into a barony.
Alexander was the celebrated Jacobite chief and poet. Born about 1670, he was destined for the church, and sent to the University of St Andrews ; but his father and brother by the first marriage dying within a few months of each other; he succeeded to the family estate and the Chiefship in the year1688. Soon after, he joined the Viscount Dundee, when he appeared in arms in the Highlands for the cause of King James; but though he does not appear to have been at Killiecrankie, and was still under age, he was, for his share in this struggle for truth. He retired, in consequence, to the court of the exiled monarch at St Germains, where he lived for several years, and served one or two campaigns in the French army. In the year of 1703, Queen Anne granted him a remission, when he returned to Scotland , and resided unmolested on his estates, but neglecting to get the remission passed the seals, the forfeiture of 1690 was never legally repealed. With about 500 of his clan he joined the Earl of Mar in 1715, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Sheriffmuir, but rescued. Soon after, however, he fell into the hands of a party of soldiers in the Highlands , and was ordered to be conducted to Edinburgh ; but, with the assistance of his sister, he contrived to escape on the way, when he again took refuge in France . In 1723, the estate of Strowan was granted by the government to Margaret, the chief's sister, by a charter under the great seal, and in 1726 she disposed the same in trust for the behalf of her brother, substituting, in the event of his death without lawful heirs of his body, Duncan, son of Alexander Robertson of Drumachune, her father's cousin, and the next lawful heir male of the family. Margaret died unmarried in 1727. Her brother had returned to Scotland the previous year, and obtaining in 1731 a remission for his life, took possession of his estate. In 1745 he once more "came out" in behalf of the Stuarts, but his age prevented him from personally taking any active part in the rebellion; his name was passed over in the list of proscriptions that followed. He died in his own house of Carie, in Rannoch, April 18, 1749 , in his 81st year without lawful issue, and in him ended the direct male line. A volume of his poems was published after his death. An edition was reprinted at Edinburgh in 1785, 12mo, containing also the "History and Martial Achievements of the Robertson's of Strowan". He is said to have formed the prototype of the Baron of Bradwardine in " Waverley ".
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Chief: Robertson of Strowan
Clan Seat: Empty
Plant: Bracken
Memorials: None
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| This old Scottish name originated in Caen near Normandy , and was a fief of William the conquerors brother Odo. The name Rose although similar in sound and sight to the Scottish Celtic name Ross, has nothing at all in common. There seems to have been a trilogy of Norman families which all account for the name Rose. There is the de Bisset's, and the de Bosco's. These names were known in England soon after the Norman Conquest, in Dorset and the Wiltshire area, but disappeared soon after. They next reappear in the North of Scotland, around the Moray Firth area. The marriage of Andrew de Bosco and Elizabeth de Bisset would join two very strong families together. Elizabeth 's family were the owners of lands in Kilravock. The marriage produced a daughter who in turn married Hugh de Ros in the year of 1290.The foundation charter pertaining to the Priory at Beauly was witnessed by Hugh's father, for John Bisset of Lovat. |
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Kilravock became their family seat and around the year of 1460 the present tower was built by the seventh baron, because he feared trouble with his unruly neighbours. At times like these the names can be confusing, but when the Earl of Ross was forfeited in 1474, the land at Kilravock, and Geddes was given by charter under the Great Seal in the next year 1475, to the Rose family.
King James the Sixth had stayed at Kilravock as had his mother Mary Queen of Scots. Hugh Rose, who was the tenth Laird, was regarded highly by King James
Hugh Rose of Kilravock, was the grandson of the Chief who had built the new tower, for some reason now unknown seized William Galbraith, Abbot of Kinloss, and imprisoned him at Kilravock. For this he was himself arrested and kept long a prisoner in Dumbarton Castle , then commanded by Sir George Stirling of Glorat. A deed is extant by which, while a prisoner, in June, 1536, the laird engaged a burgess of Paisley as a gardener for Kilravock.
The next laird was to be known as the infamous �Black Baron of Kilravock' he was also Justice Depute of the north under Argyll, sheriff of Inverness and constable of its castle under Queen Mary, and commissioner for the Regent Moray. He lived to be summoned to Parliament by James the sixth in the year 1593.
From the beginning of their clan until the present day, the Roses of Kilravock stand distinguished among the chiefs of Highland clans for their refined and literary taste, Major James Rose, the late laird and head of the house, was Lord-Lieutenant of Nairnshire from 1889 to 1904. His son, Colonel Hugh Rose, had just retired from active service in the Army when the Great European War broke out in 1914. He then again offered his services, and shortly after the beginning of hostilities was appointed Camp Commandant of one of the divisions of the British Expeditionary Force in France . Among other distinguished holders of the name in recent times have been William Stewart Rose, the well-known scholar, poet, and friend of Sir Walter Scott, and his nephew, Hugh Henry Rose, Lord Strathnairn, who won his way by distinguished services in India to the position of Commander-in-Chief in that great dependency.
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Chief: Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock
Clan Seat: Kilravock Castle, Nairnshire
Plant: Wild Rosemary
Memorials: None
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| The Celtic meaning of the name Ros is a piece of land like a promontory such as the stretch of fertile earth between Cromarty and Dornoch Firth. The name Ross comes from that ancient Celtic spelling and was also the name borne by the first earls of Ross, in the early twelfth century, he was said to be called Malcolm and lived in the reign of Malcolm the Maiden (1153-1165). Ferquhard, the second earl, called Fearchar Mac an t-Sagairt, or son of the priest, at the head of the tribes of Moray, repulsed Donald MacWilliam, the son of Donald Bane, when, soon after the accession of Alexander the second in the year of 1214, that restless chief made an inroad from Ireland into that province. |
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William, third Earl of Ross, was one of the Scots nobles who entered into an agreement, eighth of March 1258, with Llewellyn, Price of Wales, that the Scots and Welsh should only make peace with England by mutual consent.
William, fourth earl, was one of the witnesses to the treaty of Bruce with Haco, King of Norway, twenty-eighth of October 1312. With his clan he was at the battle of Bannockburn on the twenty-fourth day of June 1314, when King Robert the Bruce defeated a numerically superior English army led by their King Edward the second. The English army was decimated and fled for the border of Scotland . He signed the memorable letter to the Pope in 1320, asserting the independence of Scotland , which was to become known as �The Declaration of Arbroath�. Many years later this document formed the basis for the �American Declaration of Independence'. He had two sons, Hugh, his successor, and John, who had married into the Comyn family through Alexander Fourth Earl of Buchan's daughter, Margaret. John was given half the Earls lands. Alexander's other daughter married Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick, and King of Ireland, who was the brother of the most famous Scottish Independence fighter King Robert the Bruce in the year of 1317.
The fifth Earl was killed at the Battle of Halidon Hill in the yearof1333. Hugh's successor, William died without producing a male heir, and succession passed through the female line which later led to a struggle for the Earldom between the Lords of the Isles and the Regent Albany. The Chiefship devolved upon William Ross, second of Balnagowan and for over three centuries this line remained the principal family of the clan. From the fifteenth until the sixteenth century, the Rosses were preoccupied with a feud against the MacKay's of Strathnaver culminating in the Battle of Blar Ault an Charish on the River Carron in July 1486, when Alexander the sixth of Balnagowan and seventeen of his clan were killed. David Ross, twelfth of Balnagowan fought for Charles the first at Worcester and died a prisoner in London in the year of 1653. His son David supported William and Mary and was the last of the direct line. On his death in the year 1711, the estate was settled on the Renfrewshire family of Ross of Hawkhead, who were of no blood relation.
In the year 1968 the Chiefship passed to David Ross of Ross and Shadwick, who is a direct descendent of Mac an t'ssgirt.
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Chief: David Ross of Ross and Shadwick
Clan Seat : Nairn
Plant: Juniper Fruit
Memorials : None
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